The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1887-05-28
A Texan Wins the First Prize
i'm the Individual Drill.
The lomas Rifles and Toledo Cadets Rivals for the
First Prize A Young Lady Commanded
One Of the Rival Companies To-day
Protest Against the Memphis
Company.

titions We're in progress i'm the
main drill grounds, the Athletic
Park base ball grounds and the
United States Arsenal grounds. the
latter being individual competition. rifle
shooting. The shooting yesterday was
at 200 and 300 yards. and to-day at 500
| and 600 yards. Lieut.. Pollard, of the
Washington Light Infantry, still heads
| the list with a total of 172; next comes
| Capt. Chisholm. of the Second Maryland
| 161: third, Private Crossman, of the Sec
| ond Iowa, 142: fourth, Private Moring.
of the Light Infantry Blues. of Virginia,
| 1855: fifth, Private Cash. of the Wash
| ington Light Infantry, f6i.
The infantry corps which drilled to-
day We're the indianapolis Light Infan-
| try; Alexandria, Va, Light Infantry:
jackson Rifles, of jackson, Mich; Moli-
neaux Rifles; Company ID, Thirty second
| New York; Belknap Rifles. of San An
tonic, Texas; San Antonio, Texas, Rifles:
Lomax Rifles, of Mobile, and the Sheri-
dan Guards, of Manchester, y. III.
1t is difficult to specify the points of
| excellence or imperfections, but popular
| sympathy and appreciation seemed
| about equally enlisted by the Lomax
Rifles, of Mobile, and the Belknap Rifles,
| of Texas, with the San Antonio Rifles
| close after them. The crowd was i'm
| mense and generous in its demonstra-
tions of applause.
Next came the battalion drill between
| the Fifth Rhode Island, Louisville Legion
| and Washington Light Infantry, The
| practice throughout was pronounced
good by competent judges. and the opin
| ions of outsiders are evenly divided as TO
their respective merits.
The most interesting feature of the
| days pageantry was the individual com
| petitive drill-conducted on the country
| spelling match principle-whieh came
next after the battalion competition.
The sixty competitors were selected
men-two from each company-and
they were welcomed with cheers as they
| drew up in line before the judges.
At the very outset the line was broken
by the judges, who retired eight men for
failure to place their pieces against their
toes at ''order arms" The drill was ex-
ceedingly severe. Four keen eyed army
officers were on the lookout for errors.
Traps and pitfalls were set for the un-
wary, and the orders came thicker and
more abruptly as the work went on.
| Now and then the commander worked
his way with much elaboration up to
1 tod rh1la
| dozens would go down, only to be sur
prised himself by ready and accurate
| response of every competitor.
| One quick-witted boy was seen to
make no less than three errors which
went undetected by the judges. Anoth-
er, who was charged by too ready
| Judge with an error of some kind APP
pealed his case to the other judges and,
amid the sympathizing shouts of the spec
tators, was sustained, but only to be
| slaughtered two or three minutes later.
| The excitement rose to fever heat
when only four men were left standing,
to three of whom prizes must fall. A
Belknap Rifieman was the first of these
to go down, and the final struggle lay
between San Antonio Rifieman, Wash
ington Light Infantry man and Ser
| geant of the Louisville Legion.
The eyes of the judges detected petty
mistakes on the part of the two latter
and they directed the handsome, erect,
well built Texan to step forward as the
winner of the first prize. The contest
| between the remaining two resulted in
| giving the second prize to the Washing
| ton, and the third to the Louisville man.
| The victors in this contest are Private
| III. q. Stoke San Antonio Rifles: Charles
| T. Conrad, Company b, Washington
Light Infantry, and Sergeant j. X.
Wagner, Company A, Louisville Le-
| gion.
The day closed with dress parade of
the Virginia Brigade commanded by
Gen. Anderson. They are fine body of
men, finely equipped and drilled, and
won liberal applause from throng of
spectators of almost 1900.
| After the dress parade the Lomax Rifles
and the Toledo Cadets successfully gave
| exhibition drills, which We're witnessed
by three or four thousand people. These
two corps, if popular opinion is to be re-
lied upon, are rival aspirants for the
| first prize, and are not without warrant
for their hopes. The Lomax Rifles were
commanded during a portion of their
work by Miss Mary c. Voss, of Mobile.
the company's sponsor-a young lady of
queenly form, with face of the nobles'
type of Southern beauty. At the cOnclu
sion of their drill, they were presented
with a magnificent floral shield by Con
gresham Wheeler, of Alabama, who
made an appropriate speech to them.
The action of the Vicksburg Southron,
and Memphis Zouaves, in dropping out
of line at Wednesdays review becauss
the former objected to their position
which was next after the Virgins
brigade, and because the rear of tina
brigade was composed of two companies
of colored men. has been taken cog
nizance of officially. The Memphis
men were not in a like situation
with the Vicksburgers. but left the line
out of sympathy with them. The Chi
cago Zonaves and Keck Zouaves, o
New York, to-day joined in a protest t
the Judges of the drill against the con
sideration of the drill of Memphians, be
cause of their action in that affair. Tn
protest has been referred to the Captain
| Of the Memphis company for an explana
ion.